1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to information exchange between a connected electronic device and a battery, and more particularly, to the identification of and communication with an attached battery by an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
The development of cellular telephone technology has spurred a like need for development in the area of batteries and battery packs, and more specifically, for methods of communicating between a battery and an electronic device, such as a cellular telephone. Cellular telephones must utilize batteries in order to provide mobile capabilities. The battery is critical to the user of a cellular telephone, since the battery provides them with the ability to move about freely without being tied to a stationary power source.
Thus, in order to fully maximize the use of a cellular telephone, it is important that a user achieve maximum performance from an attached battery. This may be achieved by correctly charging the battery and always being able to identify the exact charging status of the battery. This enables a user to know how much standby time is remaining on the phone. This type of information enables the user to intelligently decide if the charge in a battery is sufficient for their needs or charging of the battery is required.
Developments of battery and battery pack related technologies have provided users with a variety of batteries which may be used with an electronic device, such as a cellular telephone. Users may have so-called “dumb”, low-end batteries which merely provide a source of power to an electronic device and no further information. These batteries may not communicate with other devices. These type of batteries have a relatively low cost and are simple to use. The so-called “smart” batteries provide a user with a power source for an electronic device and further provide data transmission capabilities between the battery and the attached electronic device. A “super smart” battery may communicate with an attached electronic device exactly what the present charge status of the battery is and can calculate this information internally without any additional input from the attached electronic device. A “smart” battery may communicate with an attached electronic device and includes registers for storing information on the capacity of the battery.
Cellular telephones require the ability to operate with “super smart”, “smart” and “dumb” batteries in order to fully utilize all technologies available. However, there presently exist no type of interface between a battery and electronic device that enables the identification of the particular type of battery attached to the electronic device, and further enables communications between the battery and the electronic device if the attached battery is identified as a “smart” battery. Furthermore, in the case of “dumb” batteries, there is a the need to provide a user of an electronic device with information identifying the amount of charge/standby time currently available to the user based on the current charge within the battery.
Existing battery communication systems have been developed for use with personal computers. These battery communication systems, while satisfactory for a personal computer operating environment, are too complex and expensive for use with smaller and cheaper electronic devices, such as a cellular telephone. Furthermore, such systems do not include the ability to operate with “dumb” batteries. Thus, there exist a need for a system overcoming these limitations.